A Woman is Only a Body in Private

-Nicole Gage



In CollegeHumor’s video “Why Girls Don’t Fart,” a woman is portrayed as incapable of releasing natural bodily functions in public, which shows society’s belief that women should be pure and should perform personal rituals in a place that is as secluded as possible. When the woman in the video does perform certain functions, she goes into a restroom where the stall is mechanically transported underground, and she must lock herself in a capsule to do everything she had held in throughout the day. This shows how women feel pressure to hide bodily functions, and how they are shamed into isolating themselves completely in order to act naturally.
The video begins with an attractive female who walks into a classroom and is followed by the gaze of two male students. They follow her throughout the course of a day, but she manages to hold in every natural bodily function and leaves them bewildered. First, she begins to sneeze but holds it in. Then, she almost burps but never actually does. Finally, at a lunch table she appears as if she is going to flatulate, or fart, but does not do so. The fact that she is consciously suppressing such functions while men face no pressure to do so shows the double standard that women are held to.
The issue of privacy also arises when the woman must go into the most secluded space possible in order to relieve herself of all suppressed actions. She not only goes into a private restroom stall, but is then transported underground to an area that looks almost scientific. This functionally turns her into a specimen and she is dehumanized in this process. This part of the video is an exaggeration, which shows that a woman is expected to have utmost privacy when momentarily putting down her personal front.
After she presses many buttons and locks herself into a capsule, she is shown in her most “natural” form. This form consists of a naked, screaming woman who seems to be in pain as she thrashes around and releases all previously suppressed bodily functions. Not only is she portrayed more as an animal than a human being, but the video seems to advocate that her release of such functions could be potentially dangerous, as lighting fixtures break while she is still flailing about. Overall, the video sheds light upon the societal pressures for women to privatize all of their acts that are not consistent with appropriate social norms.